Sophie peered at Berta, who had beenwidowed ten years ago and never looked twice at a man since as faras Lara knew, and there wasn’t much among the women they didn’t allknow.Berta and Sophie had been friends for the past thirty years,both of them young brides when they’d first met and both of themgray-haired widows now.Berta’s middle daughter, Patience, wasLara’s best friend, and had been since they were old enough totoddle around together.
“Well now.”Berta plantedher hands firmly on her hips.“The pots of water are boiling andthere’s a basket of clean linen strips beside them that needtending.”
“Let’s get on with it,then.”Sophie hitched her sack up.“There’s twenty men need tendingtoo, and I’m curious to meet this new captain.”
Lara clutched her sack to her chestand nodded dumbly.Maybe it would be best to confess to Sophieabout the captain now.
“You’ll have to wait tomeet the captain.”Berta tossed another lump of dough onto thetable.“He rode up into the mountains this morning.Anglbert sayshe’s looking for something very particular.”
Lara choked and coughed and toed theground at her sandaled feet.
Sophie gave Lara a sideways glance.“Anglbert?”she said to Berta.
“Mother’s graybeard,” Enidtold her, and Berta flapped at her like an angry hen.
“He’s not my graybeard.”She clucked.
Enid laughed.“One more roast pig, andhe will be.”
CHAPTER 2
The Chase
Talon
“Four apples, no more.”Talon handed the stallion’s reins over to Denys.“He’s had twoalready this morning, no matter what he tells you.”
The stable boy grinned.“Aye, Captain,I won’t let him fool me this time.And, Sir, the healers arehere.”
“Good.”Talon flexed hisbandaged left hand.He’d washed the cut given to him by theflame-haired, hazel-eyed wildcat he’d come across in the mountainsyesterday, but the wound could have used a good healing balm.Thethorny beauty had left her mark.
Not that he blamed her.He grinned.The first sight of her knee deep in the river as she stood off twoarmed warriors with nothing more than two puny knives and one largecanine that looked more wolf than dog was something to savor.Herlegs had been bare up to her sleekly muscled thighs, her wet skirtand tunic plastered to her womanly curves, and her auburn curls hadfallen free from their pins.He’d stood no more than a few feetfrom her as she’d studied him with her changeling eyes of green andgold and burnt umber rimmed with rings as black as her thicklashes, mesmerizing him with her voice of smoked honey and herblinding smile—right up until she’d called him an arrogant ass andsliced his palm.He chuckled and ran his good hand back through hishair.He’d asked for it, and she’d given it to him.
His troop had ridden with King Charlesinto Spain last spring, taking city after city from the rulingMoors in the name of Gaul and Christendom.After razing the city ofPamplona, which still left a bad taste in Talon’s mouth, the armyhad laid siege to Zaragoza, setting up camp on the Erbo River.Talon was a man of plans and action, and his company of horsemenformed to be fast moving and hard fighting, not to sit on theirbacksides waiting for sickness and starvation to win the day.He’dhated the sweltering plains of Spain and hated the thought ofinnocent women and children dying slow deaths behind the walls ofthe besieged city even more, so when Charles had asked for a troopto return to the border valley of Oloron to man the garrison andguard against raiding Basques, he’d been the first to volunteer.They’d arrived three days ago, and he’d been glad to find thevillagers well used to supplying goods and workers for thegarrison.Leaving Anglbert in charge yesterday, he and Phillipe,his second-in-command, had scouted the valley’s western border,following the river up the mountainside, where they’d come upon thewildcat and her wolf.
Today they’d scouted the valley’snorthern borders, where they’d found no signs of Basques orwildcats.Disappointed as he was about the latter, Talon figured hewas bound to run into her again at some point during his stay atCrossroads Keep.She’d been heading downriver yesterday with hergoats, and Oloron was the closest settlement of toths and villagesto the border wilds.He’d just have to keep looking.
Heading for the hall, a two-storystronghold of wood and stone built to house troops twice the numberof his, he noticed a distinct lack of his men at their tasks in thecourtyard.He found them inside the hall, gathered around one ofthe long dining tables.One by one they lifted their heads as heapproached, strange grins spreading across their faces as theystepped back from the table, revealing a slim figure with a thickauburn braid hanging down to the middle of her back, bending overAnglbert’s knee.
Phillipe had regaled the entire troopwith the tale of their captain and the red-haired, long-limbed goatherder at supper last night.They all watched Talon as Anglbertlooked up with the same strange grin plastered on hisface.
“Captain,” Anglbert said,and the auburn-haired goat-herder instantly stiffened.“May Iintroduce the valley’s healers: the ladies Sophie—” He noddedtoward a wizened, white-haired woman with a shrewd gaze.“—andLara.”
“Ladies.”Talon gave thesnowcapped healer a quick nod before turning to the younger woman.He gave her the briefest of grins as she lifted her gaze, her eyesas big and mesmerizing as he remembered them, eyes that grew evenbigger as he held his bandaged hand up.“I’m glad you’ve come, forI’ve a recent wound that needs tending.”
Her cheeks flushed a becoming rosypink and she dropped her gaze back down to Anglbert’sknee.
“Sit here.”The old healercalled Sophie indicated the bench beside her, across the table fromLara, who steadfastly refused to look his way as he set hislongsword down on the bench and took the proffered seat.He heldhis hand out to Sophie, who peeled away the bandage and inspectedthe cut that ran from the edge of his little finger to the base ofhis thumb.“’Tis fresh, kept clean,” she said, prodding the wound’sedges with her fingertip.She looked up from his palm, her pale,blue-gray eyes holding his.“How did you come by this nasty slice,Captain?”
Talon glanced from Sophie’s probinggaze to Lara, who slid a sidelong glance at him, the apples of hercheeks flushing even pinker.She hadn’t told the old healer oftheir meeting in the river yesterday; he’d wager coin on it.“Ifoolishly attempted to pluck a wild rose,” he told Sophie.“Barehanded.”
“Foolish is right.”Shetsked as she dropped his hand.“For only a fool would try to plucka rose barehanded.”
“Or an arrogant ass.”Talon grinned as Lara’s head shot up, her wide eyes meeting his,then narrowing.“But then it was a particularly beautiful, thorny,rose.”
Lara dropped her gaze and her long,slender fingers shook as she laid a linen strip across Anglbert’sknee.She wore a brown work apron over a sleeveless gown of mossygreen, and Talon took in the sleekly muscled lines of her arms upto her neck, where loose tendrils of auburn curled at her nape.Hefollowed the graceful bow of her neck down the length of her backto her sandaled feet, admiring the high arch of them, and met thebaleful stare of the hound that had growled him off at the riveryesterday.
The beast had to weigh ten stone atleast and looked to be solid muscle beneath his thick coat ofreddish-brown, and his upright ears were at full alert as hewatched not only Talon but every other man in the room with hisunwavering stare.The beast shifted and yawned, showing off a rackof teeth made for tearing and ripping flesh from bone, then seemedto grin at Talon, his tongue lolling between his largefangs.
